| Father Richard teaches that the inner flame of contemplation is cultivated through regular spiritual practice: Practice is an essential reset button that we must push many times before we can experience any genuine newness. Whether we’re aware of it or not, we are practicing all the time. When we operate by our habituated patterns, we strengthen certain neural pathways, which makes us, as the saying goes, “set in our ways.” But when we stop using old neural grooves, these pathways actually die off! Practice can literally create new responses and allow rigid ones to show themselves. It’s strange that we’ve come to understand the importance of practice in sports, in most therapies, in any successful business, and in creative endeavors, but for some reason most of us do not see the need for it in the world of spirituality. Yet it’s probably more important there than in any other area. “New wine demands fresh skins or otherwise we lose both the wine and the container,” as Jesus said (see Mark 2:22; Luke 5:37–38). Practices, more than anything else, create a new container for us, one that will protect the new wine we wish to take in. Many are convinced that rituals and “practices” like daily Eucharist, the rosary, processions and pilgrimages, repetitive chants, genuflections and prostrations, physically blessing oneself (as with the sign of the cross), singing, and silence have operated as a kind of body-based rewiring. Such practices allow us to know Reality mystically and contemplatively from a unitive consciousness. But, over time, as these practices turned into repetitive obligations, they degenerated; most people came to understand them magically as divinely required transactions. Instead of inviting people into new consciousness, such practices often froze people in their first infantile understanding of those rituals, and transactions ended up substituting for transformations. Mindless repetition of any practice, with no clear goal or clarity of intention, can in fact keep us quite unconscious—unless the practices keep breaking us into new insight, desire, compassion, and an ever-larger notion of God and ourselves. Automatic repetition of anything is a recipe for unconsciousness, the opposite of any genuine consciousness, intentionality, or spiritual maturity. If spirituality does not support real growth in both inner and outer freedom, it is not authentic spirituality. It is such basic unfreedom that makes so many people dislike and mistrust religious people. Any fear-based “rattling of beads” reflects the “magical” consciousness that dominated much of the world until it began to widely erode in the 1960s. Yet each of these practices can also be understood in a very mature way. It’s a paradox that God’s gifts are totally free and unearned, and yet God does not give them except to people who really want them, choose them, and say “yes” to them. This is the fully symbiotic nature of grace. Divine Loving is so pure that it never manipulates, shames, or forces itself on anyone. Love waits to be invited and desired, and only then rushes in. From Cancel Culture to Mercy Culture |
 In 2022, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt wrote a fascinating article titled, “Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid.” In the extensively researched piece, Haidt unpacks the role social media has played in the erosion of institutional and social trust. In one section, he explains the emergence of “cancel culture” and particularly the use of social media to target and silence opponents. Referring to social media posts as “dart guns,” Haidt says they “give more power and voice to the political extremes while reducing the power and voice of the moderate majority.” This is because studies show “political extremists don’t just shoot darts at their enemies; they spend a lot of their ammunition targeting dissenters or nuanced thinkers on their own team.”Haidt’s observation fits my own experience. While there are plenty of shots fired at political or cultural opponents, there is nothing like the social media fury unleashed on a member of one’s own group who is suspected of being a “squish.” Dare to question one’s side, or introduce a degree of nuance or complexity to the debate, and you’ll flee social media faster than Indiana Jones ran from the poison darts of the Hovitos. The threat of being “canceled” for being insufficiently certain and close-minded by a vocal faction of one’s own community has led wiser voices to abandon public discourse resulting in, according to Haidt, the growing stupidity of American life.The kind of certainty and inflexibility demanded by cancel culture betrays the incredible diversity and complexity of the world we now occupy. It sees only black and white and condemns those who dare admit the existence of any gray. And yet, I understand its appeal. With so many options in belief and values to choose between, and so many divergent groups to navigate, our pluralistic society can be exhausting. As Kierkegaard said, anxiety is the dizzying effect of unlimited freedom. Some try to silence the anxiety with an artificial certainty. They demand a black-and-white vision of the world and silence those who speak in shades of gray.Rather than producing more harmony, however, cancel culture only creates more fear and judgment. There is a better way—one we see extended to, and practiced by, Naaman. We can trade the cancel culture for a mercy culture.After giving his full allegiance to the Lord, Naaman recognized the difficulties that awaited him back in Syria where no one shared his new faith. He would still be required to enter pagan temples, and even assist the king with his worship of other gods. Therefore, Naaman humbly asked Elisha for understanding. In response, Elisha did not condemn or cancel Naaman. He did not rebuke him for being a “squish” or call down God’s wrath because Naaman was willing to compromise with sinners. Instead, Elisha offered him peace.Elisha’s merciful response reminds us that the world is infinitely complicated, and life is endlessly difficult. Loving God with all of our mind, heart, soul, and strength isn’t a simple paint-by-number process. It takes wisdom, nuance, discernment, and a significant amount of grace. And sometimes—perhaps many times—we will get it wrong. Elisha understood this. He recognized there were no clear black-and-white rules for following the God of Israel in a foreign, pagan country. Therefore, he extended mercy to Naaman just as the Lord had when he healed the arrogant man from Syria.This mercy from God and now extended by his prophet would also be carried by Naaman back to Syria. By his request for pardon, it’s clear that Naaman understood he could not demand that his Syrian neighbors accept or accommodate his new allegiance to Israel’s God. He would also have to extend patience and understanding to his pagan culture and his pagan king, even as he turned away from paganism himself.Elisha and Naaman display the kind of compassionate wisdom God’s people desperately need today. Of course, like Naaman, we will carry different ideas and values from others in our culture, and even among Christians, there are divergent beliefs about what faithfulness looks like today. But these challenges provide us with a choice. We may either assume the worst about our Christian sisters and brothers who think differently, condemn them as heretics, cancel them on social media, and mock them. Or, we may pursue a culture of mercy that practices patience, withholds judgment, and offers peace.DAILY SCRIPTURE ROMANS 14:13-19 Romans 14:13-19 13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. 14 I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. 15 If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died. 16 Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval. 19 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. 2 KINGS 5:1-27 WEEKLY PRAYERfrom Thomas Aquinas (1225 -1275) Give us, O Lord, a steadfast heart, which no selfish desires may drag downwards; give us an unconquered heart, which no troubles can wear out; give us an upright heart, which no unworthy ambitions may tempt aside. Give us also, O Lord our God, understanding to know you, perseverance to seek you, wisdom to find you, and a faithfulness that may finally embrace you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. |
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